Coupons for a Cause

At Publix, when you donate $1, $3, or $5 to the Children's Miracle Network, they will give you a sheet of coupons totaling over $10. If you plan to buy the items with coupons anyway (which include items like Del Monte fruit cups, Uncle Ben's Ready Rice and others), you can donate to a good cause for what amounts to no cost to you. Why not?

Food Lion trip, 5/28/09

I went to Food Lion today, hunting for 10 cent items to use on the Food Lion Private Brand Super Sale (see previous post). I didn't find any, but I do have one idea: in the 5/27/09 Food Lion Shoppers Companion email, there was a coupon for $1.00 Food Lion brand nuts. I used it successfully to buy 2 packs of 2/$1 roasted peanuts, and got them for free! If you printed enough coupons, and bought enough nuts (it would take 20 packages and 10 coupons to get a $5 coupon) the deal would be free! Not sure it would work though---maybe I'll give it a shot over the weekend and let you know.
As for the rest of my trip today, I spent $34.42 and saved $25.27, $9.00 in coupons. I used only coupons from this week and last week's Shoppers Companion. My favorite coupon gave me a free reusable shopping bag when I bought $5 worth of produce. For my Food Lion brand frenzy, I bought yogurt for 12/$5, canned vegetables for $.69, 2 packages of 6 frozen ground beef patties for $3.99 (used a coupon for $1 off $5 Butcher's Brand beef) , and various other items. I got a $6 coupon for use on my next shopping trip.
It's been a very long time since I shopped at Food Lion--probably 12 years. Back then, I lived in North Carolina (the location of their headquarters), and there was a Food Lion on every corner. I only shoppped there because it was convenient, but I preferred Harris Teeter (also a North Carolina corp.). The Food Lion I visited today is in Jacksonville, Florida. It is the biggest, nicest Food Lion I've ever seen. However, I'm still taking my coupon to Publix.
I did find a bunch of good coupons at the customer service desk, some in a book called "Home and Earth," which included:

• $.50 off a mega roll of Scott Naturals paper towels
• $3.00 off a Brita pitcher or replacement filters
• $1.00 off a bottle of Clorox Anywhere
• $1.00 off a 4-pack of Scott Naturals bath tissue
• $.55 off Sunchips
• $.55 off Tostitos salsa

and a booklet called "Sweet Deals" which included:

• $.50 off Sara Lee Bites dessert
• $.50 off Bagelfuls
• $.50 off Cool Whip
• $1.00 off Blue Bunny Ice Cream
• $.35 off Pet Ice Cream Sandwiches
• $1.00 off any 2 Nestle Push-ups or Lil'Drums
• $.50 off 2 Edward's Ala Mode or Pie Slices

as well as various tear pads with coupons for the following:

• $1.00 off Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers when you buy 2 H.C. soups
• $1.00 off Food Lion Sugar when you buy 5 packs of unsweetened Kool-Aid
• $1.00 off 2 Stouffers Corner Bistro
• $1.00 off Kraft shredded cheese
• $2.00 off Kraft Mayo or Miracle Whip

Food Lion Private Brand Super Sale

Now through June 23, when you use your MVP card and buy a minimum of 4 Food Lion Brand Prodcuts in one shopping visit, you will get a $1.00 Food Lion coupon at checkout. The more you buy, the more you get. Buy 6 products and get $1.50, 8 products and get $2, buy 10 to get $2.50, buy 20 to get $5 and buy 40 products to get a $10 coupon to use on your next shopping order. Remember, you can use competitor's coupons at Publix too.
I'm trying to think of ways to work this deal... I'm wondering if I could find any Food Lion brand items for 10 cents! Then I would spend $4 and get a $10 coupon. Not likely, I guess. But it could still be a good deal if you would be buying these products anyway, and many of them are on sale this week, including salad dressing for $1.50, shredded and chunk cheese for $1.79, canned vegetables for $.69 and Butchers Brand frozen burger patties for $3.99.

CVS Money Maker!

I'm on my way to CVS this morning to try out the hidden money maker in this week's specials: when you buy 2 Nutrogena suncare products, you get $10 back in Extra Care Bucks. However, the ECBs print even when the two products you buy are the 1 ounce size, which cost $1.99 each. That means you spend $3.98 and get $10 back in ECBs!

My Winn-Dixie Trip, 05/26/09

I often plan my trip to the store on the last day of the weekly offers before a new circular comes out. For the last couple of weeks, I've gotten catalinas at Winn-Dixie for $10 off my next order of $50 or $100, and these expire on the same day as the weekly specials. I received another one with my receipt today, so I guess I'll be back there next Tuesday! Publix does accept these as well, but I've been using them at Winn-Dixie to take advantage of the B1G1 sales in the meat department. Today I spent $112.80, and I saved $126.96. Of that amount, $32.48 was in manufacturers' coupons and $94.48 was in Reward Card savings. Here are a few of my favorite deals:

• Ball Park franks were B1G1, I had a coupon from the 5/17 RedPlum for $1 off 2. Then I found a coupon for free Sara Lee hot dog buns when I buy 2 packs of Ball Parks. The Sara Lee buns were also B1G1 this week, so I got 2 pack of hot dogs and 2 packs of buns for a total of $1.99!


• Hormel pork loins were on sale B1G1. I had a coupon from http://www.gatherroundthegrill.com/ for $6 off any pork when you buy a large bag of Kingsford charcoal and a bottle of KC Masterpiece barbeque sauce. I had a $3 Q for charcoal (which was on sale at WD for $6.99) from a flyer at Publix ("Summer's Here;" see posting below) and a Q for a free bottle of KC Masterpiece when you buy charcoal! That means I got 2 pork tenderloins, a 13.8 pound bag of charcoal and a bottle of sauce for $8.98! At the regular price, all that would cost $34.46 (saved $25.48, or 74%)! The coupons don't expire any time soon, but the charcoal and stuff is all on sale right now, so you might want to try it yourself soon.


• Split chicken breast family packs were $.99/pound--I saved $11.07 on the package I bought.


• Kraft barbecue sauce is $.88 until July 4th. There's a $1 Q on http://www.kraft.com/, so you make money on the deal.


• Kraft salad dressing is $1.77 until July 4th. There's also a $1 Q for that on http://www.kraft.com/, so the dressing costs only 77 cents.

I'll probably head over to Publix tomorrow for the last day of their weekly circular. Happy shopping!

Set Up a Coupon Swap

I had a great time with two friends of mine this morning. We met for a combined play date and coupon swap! While the little ones played together, we pulled out our coupons and Couponizers. First, we passed around some about-to-expire coupons. I did this because the month is ending in just a few days, and I figure that if I haven't used it by now, maybe someone else can! Then we flipped through our unclipped SmartSource and RedPlum flyers from the newspaper, and offered any thing we didn't think we could use. I brought all my diaper coupons and handed them off, because my kids are both potty trained. Someone else gave me her children's Zyrtec coupons, because both of my kids have allergies. Everybody found something they could use. It was not only a practical activity, it was a social one. We chatted, drank coffee and nibbled on fruit and muffins. It's so much fun, we've made it a weekly activity. I encourage any of my fellow couponers out there to do the same!

Honor American Soldiers by Using Coupons!

Today is Memorial Day: a day when we honor the men and women who fought and died for our country.
This patriotic holiday has me thinking: how can we use our super couponing skills to help others, specifically the men and women of the armed forces? The answer is to take those freebies and over-stockpiled items from your shelves, and send them to soldiers in the line of duty via http://www.anysoldier.com/. Any Soldier is a non-profit organization that connects servicemen and women around the world with stateside citizens who send them care packages. On Any Soldier's website, you can search the "wish lists" of soldiers and find out how to send them the items they need, which range from cotton socks and antiperspirant to Skittles and beef jerky.
There are so many bargains out there, giving can be painless, even in this economy. I mean, how many Speed Sticks can you use? Here are a few examples of free or nearly free items you can get this week:

CVS

Speedstick Pro, $3.99 (earns $3.99 ECBs)

Colgate Total toothpaste, 2.99 - $1 coupon online (earns $2 ECBs)

Beef Jerky, $5.99 B1G1, $1 peelable coupons on some packages

Walgreen's

Reach toothbrushes, 2/$5 - B1G1 coupon 4/26 RedPlum (earns $3 RRs)

Adidas deodorant $1.99, use $1 Adidas coupon from 4/5 RedPlum

These are just examples; every week, you can find offers like these. Share the love!

Couponizers are here!

My Couponizer order arrived last night, and I'm so excited! The Couponizer is the best coupon organizer ever, in my opinion. It looks like a spiral ring notebook, rather than a plastic file folder. Some of the things I like about it are:

• It has more categories (13) than most plastic coupon filers, so I don't have 9 million coupons in the "grocery" slot.
• It holds way more than the average coupon filer.
• It is well organized. In the front is a pocket for "coupons for this shopping trip" and one marked "checkout." When the item goes in my cart, the coupon moves from the first pocket to the second, making checkout that much easier.
• It has pockets for my customer reward cards, so they're all in one place.
• It has a pocket near the front for "Coupons to Expire This Month." That helps me make sure I use them in time!
• In the back, there's a pocket for my rewards (Extra Care Bucks and Register Rewards), so they're right there when I'm ready to use them.
• In the very back, there's a "Couptracker" for recording my savings.
• It comes with a plastic carrying bag, a cute little pair of scissors and a "CoupStacker." The CoupStacker is a fold-out sheet of paper with a square marked out for each category, corresponding to the categories in the Couponizer. On Sundays, I can clip all my coupons, sort them on the CoupStacker and slip them into the correct pocket in record time.

Couponizers are $20, but I know it will pay for itself by helping me use my coupons more effectively and efficiently, before they expire! I'm a Couponizer Coach, so if you want to order one, check out their website and tell them Shelley sent you!

New coupons at Publix

I found a new coupon flyer at the front of Publix yesterday. It's green, and it says, "SUMMER IS HERE!" There's some good stuff inside, totaling $6 in savings. Included are: $3 off Kingsford/Matchlight, $1 off KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce, $1 off Hidden Valley dressing, $1 off any Glad food storage and $1 off Glad trash bags. The great thing about this flyer is using in conjunction with the $6.00 pork coupon from http://www.gatherroundthegrill.com/coupon.php
The coupon gives you $6 off pork when you buy a bag of Kingsford charcoal and a bottle of KC masterpiece barbecue sauce.

Walgreen's trip(s), 5/21/09

I made two trips to Walgreen's today in order to get the most out of the coupon available on their website for $5 off any $25 purchase. The coupon is only good today, May 21 2009. It was actually good yesterday too, but I had a little trouble with it. I didn't notice that on the bottom in tiny print it says, "Purchase amount of $25 or more must be before taxes and after all manufacturer and Walgreens coupons and discounts." Are they serious?!? Some of the coupons they count as "Walgreens coupons" are those little ones you have to tear out of the circular in order to get their sale price. So annoying--why do they have those anyway? Why can't they just make it the sale price without having to tear out those annoying little coupons? The cashiers never know which items have coupons in the circular, either. In the past, when I was less attentive to these things than I am now (in my coupon addiction), I would miss these coupons at least 75% of the time. I guess they're counting on that, rather than having to give the sale price automatically to anyone purchasing the item.
Okay, now that my rant is over--I bought this water bottle pictured above for $.99. It was located near the "summer fun" items, and they call it "water bottle and more." Inside the bottle is a package of 10 2-ply tissues, a 4-pack of crayons, a 1 ounce tube of Walgreen's Complete Moisture lotion and a 7 day pill holder. A good deal, I think.
I spent $24.24 and saved $46.39, or 52%. The cashier said, "Wow--can I give you my shopping list?" $21 saved was manufacturers coupons, $21.31 was Walgreen's advertised savings and $4.08 was Walgreens coupon savings. Plus, I got $9.50 back in Register Rewards!
On my second trip, I spent $19.31 and saved $29.04 (66%). That time, my coupons actually put me below the $25 mark, but the kind cashier just forced it to work without saying a word. I got another $1 Register Reward and a $2 Zyrtec coupon back.

Winn Dixie Deals: $3.00 coupon when you buy Kraft BBQ sauce

I went to Winn Dixie yesterday and bought a Sunday paper, a gallon of milk, a container of blue cheese crumbles, frozen pizza and burgers. When I checked out, I got a $10 off a $50 purchase for 5/19-5/26. Yeah! I find that sometimes if I make a small purchase at Winn-Dixie early in the sale week (starts on Wednesday), the register will give me one of these $10 catalinas, and I can use it later for my big weekly shopping trip.
I got another catalina there last week that said you'll get a coupon for $3.00 your next order when you buy 6 or more bottles of BBQ sauce (that's, like, a life-time supply for me). You don't need the catalina to get the deal, but if you can print enough $1.00 coupons from the Kraft foods website, you can get this offer for free. Actually, with enough coupons, you'll make a profit. Conditions of the deal are listed below:

Buy Kraft BBQ sauce, 18 oz or larger between 5/1-5/24:

Buy 4 and get $2.00 off your next order

Buy 5 and get $2.50 ....or

Buy 6 or more and get $3.00 coupon off your next shopping order.

All items must be purchased in one shopping order. Limited to product
in stock. No cash back. Offer expires 5/24/09

Bertolli's at Target

This week at Target, Bertolli's frozen meals are $6 each. When you buy 3, you get a Target gift card. Coupons are available online at www.coupons.com.
$18-$3 of coupons=$15 out of pocket-$5 gift card= $10 for 3 or $3.33 each!

Q Clue of the Day

I'm looking for Cheerios coupons online, and I happened to find this on the Cheerios website: if you sign up now (name and email address), they will email you one $1.00 coupon for Cheerios every week during the month of June. That doesn't help me right now, when Winn Dixie is offering a free gallon of milk when you buy 4 boxes of Cheerios or other General Mills cereals for $10. Still, the coupons will be handy next month. Check it out at http://www.cheerios.com/promotions/10in1/